Top ACC finisher Bunnage leads women’s cross country to 6th place at NCAA Championships
Near-freezing temperatures were no problem for the warm-blooded Cardinal as they capped off their cross country season in Madison, Wis. on Saturday.
After a strong performance at Wisconsin Pre-Nationals on Oct. 19, Stanford returned to the Thomas Zimmer Course for its 31st consecutive appearance at the NCAA Championships. However, this time of the season brought colder weather — and much higher stakes.
In a highly contested women’s race that came down to a final 200-meter kick, sophomore Amy Bunnage held her ground at the front of the pack to finish fourth in 19:31 — just three seconds shy from the podium. This was only Bunnage’s second race of the season, following her winning debut race at West Regionals just a week prior.
Bunnage led Stanford women to place sixth at the championship and first among ACC schools.
Having been recovering from a bone stress injury in her foot, she made a last-minute decision to compete in the postseason. The gamble paid off on Saturday, as she led the No. 8 ranked Stanford women to sixth place, a significant improvement from the team’s 12th place finish at the 2023 NCAA Championships.
“I didn’t have much of a strategy. It was just have fun out there,” Bunnage said. “Just get to 5K, get to the top of that hill feeling good, and finish strong. Not much to it.”
Bunnage was the Cardinal’s highest individual finisher at the championships since Aisling Cuffe in 2013. Sophomore Sophia Kennedy followed in 33rd place, advancing 27 spots in the final half of the race to also earn All-American honors.
The last stretch of the men’s race was just as intense as the women’s. The Stanford men found themselves positioned further back in the pack, placing 12th in the championship. Sophomore Lex Young led the Cardinal with a 63rd place finish in 29:38, breaking the 30-minute mark in a cross country 10-kilometer race for the first time in his career.
The No. 9 ranked Cardinal, having earned an at-large berth to the Championships, entered Saturday’s race facing an uphill battle to the podium. The team placed 12th in the 31-team field with 356 points, featuring only a 20-second spread between Young and its No. 5 runner, freshman Paul Bergeron.
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